20 Adrenaline

"How could I have fallen for something this obvious," Yuto berates himself. They run in a panic through the bustle of Roccia. Constantly bumping civilian shoulders and tripping on feet. They arrive outside of their apartment building. Adrenaline and nerves make them queazy and they hesitate for a moment. "I'll approach from above," Xiao offers her experience in climbing buildings exactly like these. Nel observes, impressed with the level of her skill. Yuto and Nel approach from the main entrance when Xiao is in position. They don't dare risk using the radio.

Xiao burst in, using wind mana to break through the roof. At the sound of the collapsing rubble, Nel and Yuto enter. Four men that they didn't recognize were in the apartment, one had been injured by the falling debris and was knocked out. A long stream of blood cascaded down his face, concealing his identity. The three remaining men stumble, one pulls water from a flask and sends it towards the two boys in the shape of a stake. The water starts to freeze the closer it gets. Nel reaches his hand up and effortlessly stops the water with his bare palm. As it freezes completely to ice, he slams it to the ground, breaking it into many small pieces. Nel advances, he finishes the man off quickly by using the thieves' own weapon. he then moves quickly to assist Xiao who struggles to fight against the other thugs on her own. Yuto stays behind, coughing blood into his hands from exerting too much mana; in his dizzy state, he spots Chance kneeling over Christopher, who lays face down on the floor. He stumbles over to the pair, as he moves, Chance's shoulders stop blocking the view of the open and bloody wound on the back of Christopher's leg. Chance, while only minorly injured, was in tears.

Xiao finishes the thieves off by bashing them in the head with the broken leg of a chair. "Nel, Xiao, grab the medical supplies from that bag, Christopher is injured. I don't think they hit an artery but we'll still need to compress the wound." Nel compresses the wound but blood continues to gush from beneath the gauze. Then suddenly, with a white pulsing of light, it calms. Christopher awakens and looks behind him to see the light emanating from Nel's hands. "What the hell is this?" Nel says frightened. "Don't you remember Dunder's whole spiel about healing mana?" Christopher says with a relieved chuckle. "To be honest I never listen to those."

"Wrap me up and let's get moving, they're after me," Christopher explains between pained grunts. "Why do you say that?"

"Rebels aren't going to create a whole diversion only to target a single soldier. The last member of a major tribe though, that's a different story," he chuckles, this time in an angry and sarcastic tone. Disgust seeps through his words. "Someone must have leaked your location"

"Doesn't surprise me." He had already gotten used to this kind of betrayal. "I have a place we can go, if I pass out, just keep going northwest. Don't stop moving."

With those words, he falls unconscious again. The team packs what they can, leaving the radio in case the signal was leaked and had revealed their location. Outside the city gates, Xiao steals a horse while her teammates gather food for the trip. Christopher hadn't specified for how long they would be traveling. They had to trust that Christopher was leading them to the right place. Nel carried Christopher on his back. He struggled with Christopher's tall and lanky body, but as he carried him with his hands underneath his legs, he released a constant flow of healing mana. This position would surely have been painful for Christopher had he been awake, but he was in too deep of a sleep to even stir.

They meet outside the gate, Xiao stands as nonchalantly as she could stand while holding the lead of a stolen horse. She felt guilty, but she's sure she would feel more guilty if Christopher died while she could have done something to help. "Where the hell did you get that?" Yuto whispers to her. "Does it really matter right now." Nobody interrogates her further, they silently vow to clean up any mess Xiao caused later.